After a 2025 season filled with injuries, players switching from their natural positions and a nearly winless slate in Southeastern Conference play, Missouri Baseball was looking for a year to show just about any signs of improvement.
They got that in 2026. While a 12-2 loss in the SEC Tournament might have brought an unceremonious end to the season for the Tigers, they didn’t leave Hoover in shame. Before the Tigers’ opening SEC Tournament win over Ole Miss a day earlier, Mizzou had not won its first
game in the tournament since defeating Texas A&M in 2017. A pair of series wins over Kentucky and Vanderbilt, while picking up a win against Arkansas for the first time since 2022, gave the Tigers a doubled win tally in conference play.
Mizzou closed the season at 24-31 overall and 6-24 in SEC games. The question is, how much have the signs of forward progress shown and what do they mean for the future of the program?
Jackson continuing with the program
Let’s start with the present. Those steps forward, paired with the increased competitiveness of the Tigers this season led to the decision by Missouri to retain Jackson as their head coach for the fourth straight season. (Editor’s Note: I’d also add that a 1.1 million buyout probably didn’t help, either.) A report on Friday evening from Kendall Rogers from D1 Baseball stated that the Tigers plan to retain their current head coach Kerrick Jackson.
Ultimately, the broader picture for Missouri baseball, despite all of the aforementioned improvements, is the obvious. They fall behind in the investment aspect compared to other SEC programs — a conference in which the No. 9 seeded team in the SEC tournament is the No. 17 ranked team in the country and where 10 of the nation’s top-25 teams hold a spot.
Ultimately, as Joe Healy pointed out in his analysis of the program for D1 Baseball ($$), the Tigers finished well below .500 and were an absent non-factor in the postseason. They have a stadium infrastructure that is, in comparison to the other teams in the conference, lower in quality. He wrote, “Everyone associated with Mizzou baseball has been sent into a gun fight with a Super Soaker.”
That’s why the second part of the post is almost more notable than the decision to keep Jackson onboard. What would a program with more investment and internal support under Jackson look like? More interesting — because it not only gives a chance for him to yield his vision of what his team can look like — but if the program’s downhill slide since joining the SEC continues, the naysayers of Jackson could also be proven right. Ultimately, what is true investment needed to be seen for Tigers fans that not said?
What’s happening on the inside of the program is more important to Kerrick Jackson than hearing all of the noise on the outside, as he described in detail after the Tigers’ historic home series win over Vanderbilt.
I’ve never listened to it,” Jackson said. “Growing up, it didn’t matter what other people thought except for the people in your circle. You never let anybody else establish your self‑value and self‑worth. There are only certain people whose opinions really matter, because those are the people who support you whether you’re at the top or the bottom. When you look at social media, a lot of people want to see someone fail. So we tell our guys: don’t worry about what other people outside your circle think. Stay focused on what we’re doing and what we’re about.”
Throughout the season, Jackson has remained consistent in his stance on the longterm building process. It will take time, and while earning the historic wins was nice, it isn’t as important as Mizzou playing good consistent baseball.
“If you take away the wins and losses and you see the progress the team has made,” Jackson said. “From a wins and loss standpoint, we want to be in regionals… as we’re continuing to grow and develop, we’re going to put ourselves in a position to be able to make those things happen.”
Breaking down the Tigers’ remaining stars
With seven seniors honored in the team’s final home game: Peyton Basler, Cameron Benson, Gehrig Goldbeck, Jamal George, Keegan Knutson, Juan Villarreal and Jase Woita, Mizzou now enters an important transition period. Here is where the roster stands heading into the post-graduation offseason.
The bats were alive this season, and a few star players will hopefully return for more. Junior Kam Durnin led the way with a .329 batting average while also posting the team’s highest slugging percentage at .570 and adding a high of 11 stolen bases. After transferring from Wichita State in June 2025 with two years of eligibility left, Durnin quickly became a key piece of Mizzou’s lineup. Retaining Durnin for his senior season would be a major boost for Mizzou, and a vital offensive threat on the basepath.
Another key contributor, freshman Blaize Ward, ranked second on the team with a .296 batting average. Ward was especially dominant in SEC play, hitting .667 during the series win over Kentucky and .462 during the series against Vanderbilt. He also earned SEC Co-Freshman twice this year, and his emerging young talent will be a key necessity for the Tigers.
As for the Tigers’ pitching staff, junior Josh McDevitt is exactly who they need on the mound during his senior year. McDevitt posted a 4.42 ERA with a 3-5 record this season, including a career-high 11 strikeouts against Arkansas in a 5-4 tough loss. After his 2025 year of just seven appearances on the mound, he has proven to be the kind of arm Mizzou put at the top of its rotation. McDevitt took the ball as the starter a total of 15 times this season, and will be just as crucial in the upcoming one.
UPDATES:
May 24: The roster will continue to evolve this offseason, and the first two moves came when infielder Chris Patterson and right-hander Keagen Kohlhoff both entered the transfer portal. Patterson missed nearly two months with an injury from March 14 through May 9 before returning for the final three SEC regular‑season games and both SEC Tournament contests.
Patterson started all 24 games he played in this season and hit .237 in the 2026 season with two doubles, a triple, two home runs and 14 RBI. As a freshman in 2025, he appeared in 35 games with 30 starts and hit .232 with eight doubles and 18 RBI. Across two seasons, he hit .234 in 59 games with 32 RBI and posted a .955 fielding percentage.
Kohlhoff appeared more scarcely for Missouri in the 2026 season, pitching 4.1 innings total in three relief appearances. He gave up three earned runs and struck out seven batters while walking nine batters and hitting one. Thus marks the first Mizzou pitcher to enter the portal after the conclusion of the 2026 season.
